Device Power Saving Method and Device Power Saving Apparatus

This is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/775,449 filed on May 9, 2022, which is a U.S. National Stage of International Application No. PCT/CN2019/117187 filed on Nov. 11, 2019. The disclosures of the above-referenced applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties for all purposes.

The present disclosure relates to the field of communication technologies, and in particular to device power saving methods and device power saving apparatuses.

In order to increase access rate and throughput and the like of Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) such as Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), IEEE802.11 establishes Study Group (SG) IEEE802.11be to research on a next generation mainstream (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi technology.

In the next generation mainstream (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi technology, in order to reduce power consumption of communication devices, in a communication process between devices, devices are supported to enter a sleep mode so as to achieve the purpose of power saving.

In the related Wi-Fi technology, in order to increase data transmission rate and reduce delay, a multi-link (ML) manner is proposed for data transmission. It becomes a research hot spot to find a way to save power when performing data transmission using the multi-link manner.

In order to overcome the problems existing in related art, the present disclosure provides device power saving methods and device power saving apparatuses.

According to a first aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a device power saving method. The device power saving method includes: generating, by a first device, a first message frame, wherein the first message frame includes an identifier information bit used to indicate to enter a power saving mode in one or more links of a plurality of links, wherein the first device communicates data frames with a second device via the plurality of links based on asynchronous communication mode; sending, by the first device, the first message frame to the second device in one or more links associated with the second device; receiving, by the first device, a second message frame fed back by the second device in the one or more links associated with the second device, determining, by the first device, whether to enter a sleep mode in a sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit based on the second message frame, wherein the second message frame is used to confirm or reject the first device to enter the sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit, and determining, by the first device, that the first device enters a sleep mode in all links with the second device, and then monitoring a downlink frame in one of the one or more links associated with the second device and obtaining time synchronization information for maintaining synchronous communication with the second device while all the plurality of links with the second device are in the power saving mode.

According to a second aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a device power saving apparatus. The device power saving apparatus includes a processor; and a memory storing processor-executable instructions; wherein when the processor executes the processor-executable instructions, the processor is configured to perform operations including: generating a first message frame, wherein the first message frame includes an identifier information bit used to indicate to enter a power saving mode in one or more links of the plurality of links, wherein the device power saving apparatus communicates data frames with a second device via the plurality of links based on asynchronous communication mode; sending the first message frame to a second device in one or more links associated with the second device; receiving a second message frame fed back by the second device in the one or more links associated with the second device, determining whether to enter a sleep mode in a sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit based on the second message frame, wherein the second message frame is used to confirm or reject the device power saving apparatus to enter the sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit, and determining that the device power saving apparatus enters a sleep mode in all links with the second device, and then monitoring a downlink frame in one of the one or more links associated with the second device and obtaining time synchronization information for maintaining synchronous communication with the second device while all the links with the second device are in the power saving mode.

According to a third aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a device power saving system, including a first device, wherein the first device includes: a first processor; and a first memory storing processor-executable instructions; wherein, when the first processor executes the processor-executable instructions, the first processor is configured to perform operations comprising: generating a first message frame, wherein the first message frame comprises an identifier information bit used to indicate to enter a power saving mode in one or more links of the plurality of links, wherein the first device communicates data frames with a second device via the plurality of links based on asynchronous communication mode; sending the first message frame to a second device in one or more links associated with the second device; receiving a second message frame fed back by the second device in the one or more links associated with the second device, determining whether to enter a sleep mode in a sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit based on the second message frame, wherein the second message frame is used to confirm or reject a first device to enter the sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit, and determining that the first device enters a sleep mode in all links with the second device, and then monitoring a downlink frame in one of the one or more links associated with the second device and obtaining time synchronization information for maintaining synchronous communication with the second device while all the links with the second device are in the power saving mode.

It should be understood that the above general descriptions and subsequent detailed descriptions are merely illustrative and explanatory rather than limiting of the present disclosure.

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail herein, with the illustrations thereof represented in the drawings. When the following descriptions involve the drawings, like numerals in different drawings refer to like or similar elements unless otherwise indicated. The embodiments described in the following examples do not represent all embodiments consistent with the present disclosure. Rather, they are merely examples of apparatuses and methods consistent with some aspects of the present disclosure as detailed in the appended claims.

The device power saving method provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure is applied to a wireless local area network communication system including a data transmitting device and a data receiving device. The data transmitting device and the data receiving device may be Station (STA) or Access Point (AP). Forward and backward transmissions of data are performed by a wireless local area network between the data transmitting device and the data receiving device.

STA involved in the present disclosure may be understood as a user terminal in a wireless local area network, and the user terminal may be referred to as user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT) or the like, which is a device capable of providing voice and/or data connectivity to a user. For example, the terminal may be a handheld device or a vehicle-mounted device or the like having wireless connection function. At present, the examples of some terminals may be mobile phone, Pocket Personal Computer (PPC), palm-held computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), laptop computer, tablet computer, wearable device, Internet of Things (IoT) client or vehicle-mounted device or the like.

The AP involved in the present disclosure refers to a device, or a router or the like used by the user terminal of a wireless local area network to access the network.

In the related art, transmission of data frames is performed based on IEEE802.11 standard between STA and AP. Currently, IEEE802.11 establishes Study Group (SG) IEEE802.11be to research on a next generation mainstream (802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi technology, covering 320 MHz bandwidth transmission, multiple frequency bands aggregation and synergy and so on. The vision proposed will increase rate and throughput of at least four folds compared with the existing IEEE802.11ax. Its major application scenarios include video transmission, AR, VR and the like.

The multiple frequency bands aggregation and synergy refers to simultaneous communication in multiple frequency bands or multiple bandwidths in a same frequency band, for example, simultaneous communication in three frequency bands 2.4 GHz, 5.8 GHz and 6-7 GHZ. The simultaneous communication in multiple frequency bands or multiple bandwidths in a same frequency band may be understood as multi-link communication, or called multi-link aggregation (MLA).shows schematic diagram of multi-link communication. A first device and a second device incommunicate with each other over N links at the same time, where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

The current research hotspot is how a device under multi-link communication enters a sleep mode.

The technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure may have the following beneficial effects: by indicating that a device is a candidate to enter a sleep mode in one or more links with an identifier information bit in a message frame, and determining, based on a message frame to confirm or reject the device to enter a sleep mode in a sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit, whether to enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit, it can effectively determine whether the device enters a sleep mode in a case of multi-link communication.

An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a device power saving method. In this method, data frames are transmitted at the same time in multiple links between a first device and a second device, that is, under multi-link communication. The first device generates a message frame including an identifier information bit, which is referred to as a first message frame. The identifier information bit included in the first message frame is used to indicate that the first device is a candidate to enter a sleep mode in one or more links of multiple links for transmitting data frames with the second device. The first device sends the generated first message frame to the second device. Upon receiving the first message frame, the second device feeds back a message frame to the first device to confirm or reject the first device to enter a sleep mode in the one or more sleep-mode-candidate links indicated by the identifier information bit. The message frame to confirm or reject the first device to enter a sleep mode in the one or more sleep-mode-candidate links indicated by the identifier information bit is referred to as a second message frame hereunder. The first device receives the second message frame fed back by the second device and then determines whether to enter a sleep mode in the one or more sleep-mode-candidate links indicated by the identifier information bit based on the second message frame. Further, when the second message frame indicates that the first device is confirmed to enter a sleep mode in the one or more sleep-mode-candidate links indicated by the identifier information bit, the first device can enter a sleep mode under multi-link communication, thus satisfying the needs of IEEE802.11be for communication with device power saving under multi-link communication.

is a flowchart illustrating a device power saving method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in, the device power saving method is applied to a first device. The first device may be a STA or AP. Data frames are transmitted in multiple links between a second device and the first device at the same time. The second device may be an AP or STA. The device power saving method may include the following steps.

At step S, a first message frame is generated.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first message frame includes an identifier information bit used to indicate the first device is a candidate to enter a sleep mode in one or more links of the multiple links.

At step S, the first message frame is sent to the second device.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the first device sends the first message frame to the second device. The second device receives the first message frame from the first device and then determines whether to allow the first device to enter a sleep mode based on actual situations, and feeds back a second message frame to confirm or reject the first device to enter a sleep mode to the first device. For example, after correctly completing receptions of all data frames transmitted from the first device, the second device may confirm the first device to enter a sleep mode. When determining a communication with the first device is not completed, the second device may reject the first device to enter a sleep mode.

At step S, a second message frame fed back by the second device is received and whether to enter a sleep mode in a sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit is determined based on the second message frame.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the second message frame is used to confirm or reject the first device to enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit. When the second message frame is used to confirm the first device to enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit, the first device determines to enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit. When the second message frame is used to reject the first device to enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit, the first device does not enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit but continues communication.

In the device power saving method provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure, the first device can enter a sleep mode under multi-link communication, thus satisfying the needs of IEEE802.11be for communication with device power saving under multi-link communication.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, a process of entering a sleep mode under multi-link communication as mentioned above will be described below in combination with practical applications.

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with the first device as a STA and the second device as an AP. In some examples, the first device may also be an AP and the second device may also be a STA, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a first message frame generated by a STA may be a data message frame or management message frame. When performing multi-link communication with an AP, the STA may set an identifier information bit in a Power Management subfield included in a Frame Control (FC) field in a media access control (MAC) frame header of the data message frame or management message frame.is a schematic diagram illustrating a format of an MAC frame header according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the identifier information bit in the first message frame may be a bit, and different bit values may be obtained by bit setting. Different bits have different values. The bits of different values may be used to indicate whether the first device is a candidate to enter a sleep mode. For example, when the bit in the power management subfield in the FC field of the MAC frame header is set to “1”, it indicates the STA is a candidate to enter a sleep mode (power saving mode). When the bit in the power management subfield in the FC field of the MAC frame header is set to “0”, it indicates the STA is not a candidate to enter a sleep mode but will continue data frame transmission.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the STA may select to or not to enter a sleep mode respectively in each of multiple links. Thus, the STA may respectively send the first message frame to the AP in each link of the multiple links and indicate whether to enter a sleep mode in a current link in each of the first message frames sent over the multiple links.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, if the STA enters a sleep mode in all links for performing multi-link communication with the AP, the STA may wake up and monitor a cache downlink data frame in links associated with the AP and obtain time synchronization information for maintaining synchronous communication with the AP.

Furthermore, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the STA usually enters a sleep mode after completing transmissions of all data frames. As a result, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, in order to ensure the data frames are completely sent, the STA may send the first message frame to the AP after completing data frame transmission. For example, when the first message frame is a data message frame, the data message frame is a last data frame that the STA sends to the AP in the current link. When the first message frame is a management message frame, the STA may send the management message frame after completing sending all data frames to the AP in the current link.

Furthermore, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the second message frame may be a Acknowledge (ACK) frame. An identifier information bit to confirm or reject the STA to enter a sleep mode is set in a power management subfield in a FC field of an MAC frame header of the ACK frame. For example, when the power management subfield of the FC field of the ACK frame is set to “1”, it indicates that the STA can enter a sleep mode. When the power management subfield of the FC field of the ACK frame is set to “0”, it indicates that the STA cannot enter a sleep mode.

In IEEE802.11be, there may be two multi-link communication modes between a STA and an AP: asynchronous (or independent) communication mode and synchronous (or simultaneous) communication mode. In the asynchronous communication mode, access channels under each link in multiple links are independent of each other. As shown in, a link, a linkand a linkare in asynchronous communication mode and data frames transmitted by the STA under the three links are independent of each other and are asynchronously transmitted. In the synchronous communication mode, the access channels under each of the links are mutually associated. As shown in, the data frames transmitted by the STA in the linksandhave synchronous transmission and the data frames transmitted in the linksandhave synchronous transmission.

In the asynchronous communication mode, the access channels under each link are independent of each other. Therefore, when multi-link communication is performed between the STA and the AP in such mode, a first message frame may be generated for each link of the multiple links and sent in each link of the multiple links. For example, when a power management subfield in a FC field of a MAC frame header of the data frame or management frame sent in each link is set to “1”, it indicates that the STA is a candidate to enter a sleep mode in each link.

If the STA enters a sleep mode in all links for performing multi-link communication with the AP, the STA may wake up and monitor a cache downlink data frame in links associated with the AP, and obtain time synchronization information for maintaining synchronous communication with the AP.

In the synchronous communication mode, the access channels under each link are mutually associated. Therefore, when the STA communicates with the AP in such mode, on one hand, a first message frame may be generated for each link of the multiple links and sent in each link of the multiple links, and, on the other hand, the first message frame may also be sent to the AP in the links associated with the AP. The identifier information bit in the first message frame is used to indicate that the STA is a candidate to enter a sleep mode in the multiple links for performing synchronous communication. For example, in the synchronous communication process shown in, the STA may send the first message frame to the AP in the links associated with the AP, and the identifier information bit in the first message frame may be used to indicate the STA will enter a sleep mode in the linksand, and may also be used to indicate the STA will enter a sleep mode in the linksand. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, in the synchronous communication mode, the first message frame sent in one link indicates the STA will enter a sleep mode in multiple links for synchronous communication, thus there may be a plurality of the identifier information bits in the first message frame. A number of the identifier information bits may be determined based on a number of the links for currently performing synchronous communication, so as to ensure it can indicate that the STA is a candidate to enter a sleep mode in all links for currently performing synchronous communication. For example, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the STA may set a plurality of bits in the power management subfield in the FC field of the MAC frame header of the data frame sent in the links associated with the AP. Each of the plurality of bits is used to indicate whether the STA is a candidate to enter a sleep mode in one link. For example, when the bit is set to “1”, it indicates that the STA is a candidate to enter a sleep mode in the link; when the bit is set to “0”, it indicates that the STA is not a candidate to enter a sleep mode in the link.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the STA may preset one more bit in the power management subfield of the FC field in the MAC frame header of the data frame sent in the links associated with the AP to indicate that the STA is a candidate to enter a sleep mode in all links for currently performing synchronous communication. If the preset one bit in the MAC frame header is set to “1”, it indicates that the power management subfields in the FC fields of all links are set to “1” and the STA is a candidate to enter a sleep mode. If the preset one bit in the MAC frame header is set to “0”, it indicates that the power management subfields in the FC fields of a part of the multiple links for synchronous communication are set to “1” and the STA is a candidate to enter a sleep mode. In addition, it also indicates that the power management subfields in the FC fields of a part of the multiple links for synchronous communication are set to “0”, the STA is not a candidate to enter a sleep mode but will continue communication.

If the STA enters a sleep mode in all links for performing multi-link communication with the AP, the STA may wake up and monitor a cache downlink data frame in the links associated with the AP and obtain time synchronization information for maintaining synchronous communication with the AP, or, the STA may randomly select a link to wake up for maintaining time synchronization with the AP, or the STA may wake up in a link specified by the AP to maintain time synchronization with the AP.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, when performing multi-link communication with the AP, the STA may switch a sleep-mode-candidate link in some links. For example, in a case of a high load of a link, the STA may dynamically switch to a link with lower load to continue communication and the link with a high load may enter a sleep mode, or a link in a sleep mode may be switched to continue communication. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, when determining to switch a sleep-mode-candidate link, the identifier information bit in the first message frame for indicating the sleep-mode-candidate link needs to be updated.

In the above embodiments of the present disclosure, when the STA performs multi-link communication with the AP, the identifier information bit indicates entering a sleep mode, such that the STA can enter a sleep mode under multi-link communication, thus meeting the needs of IEEE802.11be for multi-link communication.

is a flowchart illustrating a device power saving method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in, the device power saving method is applied to a second device. The second device may be an AP or STA. Data frames are transmitted at the same time in multiple links between the second device and a first device. The first device may be a STA or AP. The device power saving method includes following steps.

At step S, a first message frame is received from the first device.

The first message frame includes an identifier information bit used to indicate that the first device is a candidate to enter a sleep mode in one or more links of multiple links.

At step S, a second message frame is fed back to the first device.

After receiving the first message frame from the first device, the second device may determine whether allowing the first device to enter a sleep mode in a sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit based on actual situations, and feed back the second message frame to the first device to confirm or reject the first device to enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit. For example, after correctly completing receiving data frames from the first device in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit, the second device may confirm the first device to enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit. When determining a communication with the first device is not completed in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit, the second device may reject the first device to enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the second message frame may be a Acknowledge (ACK) frame. An identifier information bit to confirm or reject the first device such as a STA to enter a sleep mode is set in a power management subfield in a FC field of an MAC frame header of the ACK frame. For example, when the power management subfield of the FC field of the ACK frame is set to “1”, it indicates that the first device is confirmed to enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit. When the power management subfield of the FC field of the ACK frame is set to “0”, it indicates that the first device is reject to enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit, that is, the first device cannot enter a sleep mode in the sleep-mode-candidate link indicated by the identifier information bit.

In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the process in which the second device receives the first message frame and feeds back the second message frame may correspond to the process in which the first device sends the first message frame. For example, the second device may receive the first message frame from the first device in each of the multiple links. The identifier information bit in the first message frame is used to indicate the first device is a candidate to enter a sleep mode in a current link for sending the first message frame. Further, the second device feeds back the second message frame to the first device in each of the multiple links.